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#News(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]
Automation is a fact of life in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, and other businesses are looking to add machine labor to their processes to replace part of the human workforce. It was in this nascent robot revolution that Rethink Robotics launched in 2008 with its own innovative ideas on what robots could offer.
Rethink Robotics, founded by Ann Whitaker and Rodney Brooks, attempted to improve upon what it saw as a shortcoming of current robots with its own pair of collaborative machines, Baxter and Sawyer, launched in 2011 and 2015, respectively. Whereas most current robots excel with the tasks we associate robots with — rote, precise and repetitive chores — they are unable to deal with complexity or adaptation, and are cordoned off to their own spaces within factories or work environments, away from humans due to safety concerns (of the quotidian variety, not the robot uprising kind.) Baxter and Sawyer were designed with overcoming these challenges in mind, meant to be easy to program with animated faces that allowed the robots to communicate with humans, and safe enough to place alongside people.
Rethink got off to a promising start, earning profiles in the New York Times and Time that seemingly heralded the company’s creations as the future of robotics. They also raised over $149 million in funding over the course of the company’s lifespan. And while both funding and hype are key components of success, they are not guarantors, and neither money nor press could ultimately forestall the company’s fate, as it closed its doors in October 2018. As is the case with many innovative companies that shut down, its employees were hired by a rival, and its IP was similarly snatched up, so the seeds of Rethink’s ideas will continue on in the world of robotics.
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